Some Republicans facing tough 2020 elections are weighing a break with President Donald Trump on foreign policy or his border wall-driven national emergency declaration.

David Perdue is going the other way.

“Republicans have made a mistake in the past by running away from this president. I don’t see any need to do that,” Perdue, the first-term Georgia senator, said in an interview. “I support this agenda. I don’t support everything he says or how he says it, but this agenda is working.”

It’s a confident early stance from a Republican facing one of the toughest reelection races in the country next year — especially if he faces Stacey Abrams, the Democrat who lost the 2018 gubernatorial race by 1.4 percentage points. Democrats argue Georgia has shifted rapidly into battleground territory since Perdue romped to victory in 2014 over Michelle Nunn, the daughter of a legendary senator. And Perdue’s reelection is critical for Republicans to hold their Senate majority in 2020.

Nevertheless, Perdue is pitching himself as the co-pilot of Trump’s first term. The CEO-turned-politician boasts about how his pull with the president has benefited Georgians on a variety of issues, including a disaster relief package currently working through Congress; the defeat of a border adjustment tax; and limits on potential additional tariffs. As one of the president’s top allies on Capitol Hill, Perdue rarely, if ever, seeks public separation from the commander in chief.

“I influence this president,” Perdue said.

Perdue doesn’t plan to run solely as a Trump ally, however, but to lean on his own record as a businessman still new to politics. He said he thinks he can maintain his status as an outsider even as an incumbent, running as someone “in the belly of the beast.”

Perdue pledges that if he wins his next term will be his last, but he’s running like his “hair’s on fire” as he prepares for the second campaign of his life. The Republican conceded he could lose, but believes his path to a second term is through framing his race as a debate between Trump’s policies in office and proposals from Democratic presidential aspirants, which the Republican senator boiled down to a “debate between free enterprise and socialism.”

“Nothing is for granted, nothing is guaranteed,” Perdue said. He added that when Georgia voters are “exposed to the facts about the ethos of what Democrats are perpetrating right now versus what is actually being proven to work, they’ll get past whatever I said or whatever Trump said or anything else, and they’ll do the right thing.”

Democrats eyeing Perdue’s seat aren’t so sure.

“Six years ago, I knew which base in Georgia is stronger — it wasn’t ours,” Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said of the effort to defeat Perdue. “We don’t know the answer to that question today.”

Perdue seems to understand that his state has morphed from fertile GOP terrain into a true battleground, as Democrats pursue a suburban strategy they believe will resonate in diverse Sunbelt states. But that doesn’t mean he will tack to the center politically: He’s essentially backing Trump’s agenda at every turn in the Senate and says if he disagrees with the president, he will do so in private.

Former Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) lost last year after initially equivocating over supporting Trump on Obamacare repeal, which Republicans say informs their future political plans. They say if senators are going to win red-leaning states, it’s going to be by riding with the president — and there’s no upside to breaking with him.

“Probably not in Georgia,” said GOP Sen. Richard Shelby of neighboring Alabama. “In California or Massachusetts, I’d think it would be a plus.”

Perdue fashions himself as a businessman, not a career politician, and has pushed internal proposals that have annoyed his more veteran colleagues. He’s led the charge to ax August recesses for the past two years, pushed major changes to government funding procedures and sought to change the GOP conference’s rules to more readily punish Republican chairmen that stray from the party line.

Last month, Perdue was overwhelmingly defeated on an internal vote that would have made it easier to strip GOP senators of committee chairmanships, a proposal he’s discussed in the past. GOP committee chairs Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine and John McCain of Arizona voted against Obamacare repeal in 2017, and last year Murkowski opposed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

“We have to vote our conscience, and it was disappointing for him to think that a war hero like John McCain should be stripped of his chairmanship of the Armed Services Committee over a disagreement on policy,” said Collins.

Perdue said his proposal was about more accountability and not aimed at a particular person. But he acknowledged he’s rubbed some of his colleagues the wrong way: “I don’t want this to sound arrogant, but I’ve got enough friends in Georgia.”

Back in Georgia, however, there are pockets that are increasingly difficult battlegrounds, said state Republican Party Chairman John Watson. Ground zero is the Atlanta suburbs, where Perdue won significant support in 2014 but voters moved away from the Republican Party in 2016 and last year.

Perdue said he thinks he’ll be able to win back some of those suburban voters. He argued that Trump hardly campaigned in Georgia during the presidential race, and Brian Kemp, the GOP governor, didn’t message to them, instead focusing on rural Republican turnout after emerging late from a primary runoff. Democrats flipped one suburban Atlanta House district and only narrowly lost in a second. But Perdue plans to target suburban voters rather than just ceding them to Democrats.

“They only heard one side of this argument in ’16, and they only heard one side of the argument in ’18,” Perdue said. “They’ll hear both sides of the argument in ’20.”

“He has worked the Atlanta suburbs over his tenure and continues to work them very hard,” said GOP Rep. Rob Woodall, who is retiring next year from his suburban Atlanta district after a surprisingly narrow victory in 2018. “While the governor’s race had a Republican rural strategy, David is working in every corner of the state to make sure he’s turning out the vote.”

“His values and achievements are ones that align very closely with Georgians,” said National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Todd Young of Indiana. “He’ll end up winning.”

Democrats argue that Perdue’s embrace of Trump and the president’s position at the top of the ticket will continue the erosion of GOP support in those areas.

“In the suburbs, there’s a lot of potential for the Democratic vote,” said J.B. Poersch, president of Senate Majority PAC, a top Democratic outside group.

Watson, the GOP chairman, said Perdue’s embrace of Trump is a positive in the red-leaning state in a presidential year. But he also has little choice.

“For the senator to walk away would be just like so many other politicians that people can’t stand,” Watson said. “He’s raised his hand for this president, this party and Georgia is very favorable to the president and to change paths now would be very insincere.”

Perdue’s path will get significantly more difficult if Abrams joins the race — she is considering a Senate or presidential campaign, or another run for governor in 2022, and will decide in the coming weeks. But Perdue dismissed Abrams as a “state personality” and a career politician, saying she’d “never had a real job that I can tell.”

“I don’t think it matters who the candidate is, the issues are going to be the same,” Perdue said.

In 2016, Perdue told Trump he would safely win Georgia and should focus his efforts in Midwestern states even as Democrats started to talk up the Peach State as a potential battleground. Trump won it by 5 points, down from Perdue’s 8-point victory. Last year, Kemp won by just 1.4 points. Perdue says the trend doesn’t concern him.

“The ethos in Georgia is still there that elected Donald Trump. Don’t let anybody kid you about that,” Perdue said.

Today, President Trump again spoke directly to the American people about the national security crisis at our southern border. This President has listened to both sides and is still willing to compromise, and all members of Congress should take the proposal seriously.

However, some Senate Democrats rejected the proposal before even hearing the details. This rejection underscores how desperate they are to keep making an immigration a political issue instead of working toward a real bipartisan solution that could reopen the government.

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., is passing the Seapower Subcommittee gavel to self-described “China watcher” Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., as part of a larger reshuffle on the Senate Armed Services Committee for the new Congress.

“Today, we have the smallest Army since WWII, the smallest Navy since WWI, and the oldest and smallest Air Force ever. At the same time, we face complex threats from China, North Korea, Russia, and Iran,” Perdue said in a statement Friday to Defense News.

“A robust naval fleet is critical to deter aggression worldwide, project power, and support our allies. The Subcommittee on Seapower will provide vital oversight and support for our Navy and Marine Corps as they work to meet the increasing demand of global missions.”

Perdue’s state hosts nine military installations, including the 40-year-old Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay, which is home to six Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines, two guided-missile submarines and a facility that assembles the D-5 ballistic missile.

Perdue’s selection to head the Senate Seapower Subcommittee is a bicameral coup for the U.S. Navy’s submariners. Rep. Joe Courtney, D-Conn., who is the presumptive head of the House Armed Services Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, has been a fierce advocate for submarine building.

Courtney’s district includes the General Dynamics Electric Boat shipyard where the new Columbia class — set to replace the Ohio class in 2027 — will be constructed. The two chairmen will have outsized voices in how many Columbia-class subs will be built, as well as the future role of the aging Kings Bay.

A rare Seapower chairman without a major shipbuilder in his state, and a fiscal conservative, Perdue will bring objectivity to the sub-panel and “a needed focus on more bang for the buck,” said Arnold Punaro, a retired two-star and SASC staff director under Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, now retired.

Perdue has used his experience as a businessman who lived and worked in Asia to become a voice in Congress on China issues, including trade and human rights. Perdue sits on the Senate Budget Committee and sat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee until recently.

On the SASC since 2016, Perdue has grilled administration officials about Beijing’s military buildup and whether the size of America’s sub fleet can match competitors. Last year, he traveled to Japan, Taiwan and Singapore, where he touted the U.S. military’s role in securing free trade and safe shipping lanes.

“He has become a real expert on China both from an economic and military standpoint,” Punaro said of Perdue. “The U.S. military, and in particular the Navy, needs to be extremely focused on Chinese naval power and their other threats in the maritime domain.”

Wicker, the sea power panel’s chair since 2015, relinquished the gavel to become chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. He and his House counterpart, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., saw their legislation to turn the Navy’s 355-ship requirement into U.S. policy signed into law a year ago.

SASC leaders announced a new roster Thursday that mostly maintains the status quo at the top, following a wider shakeup.

For the minority, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., replaced former Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., as ranking member on the Cybersecurity Subcommittee.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., replaced former Sen. Joe Donnelly as ranking member of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., replaced Heinrich as ranking member of the Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee.

Middle Georgia supports the mission, service members and military families of Robins AFB. A variety of organizations in the Middle Georgia community work closely with Robins to ensure the airman have what they need to do their jobs and are welcomed into the community. The philosophy is reflected in the community’s motto, EDIMGIAFAD or “Every Day in Middle Georgia is Armed Forces Appreciation Day.”

Robins Is A Force Today & Will Be Tomorrow. Here’s Why.By U.S. Sen. David PerdueThe Macon Telegraph

Since 1941, Robins Air Force Base has played a key role in our nation’s national defense. Growing up in Warner Robins, I remember watching B-52s and KC-135s take off to fly around Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

To say Robins Air Force Base is important to the Middle Georgia community and our nation is an understatement. Maintaining Robins’ ability to meet the changing needs of the Air Force has been a personal priority of mine since the day I came to the United States Senate.

For almost three decades, the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) has been critical to Robins and our troops in battle. These planes are the most in-demand piece of equipment at Robins, flying over 125,000 combat hours in support of our troops in five geographical combatant command areas.

Today, JSTARS is still our nation’s premier intelligence and battle management asset. I have always supported JSTARS and still do today. In this year’s defense bill, we’ve ensured the full fleet of JSTARS will be manned, maintained, and funded. We have also secured upgrades needed to keep the fleet viable well into the next decade.

However, to avoid a capability gap, we must think about the future. That is why the U.S. Senate defense bill requires the Air Force to show real progress toward its future system before retiring any of the JSTARS fleet.

We’ve seen Russia and China modernize their air defenses to keep our specialized capabilities farther from potentially contested locations. As a result, there are vast areas of the globe the current JSTARS fleet cannot penetrate today or in the future. Our military needs a system that can provide the key capabilities of the JSTARS platform into these anti-access areas.

This is where the Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) comes into play. This month, the Air Force announced the ABMS mission is coming to Robins Air Force Base. This mission will be focused on a new approach to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and battle management. It will be the first of its kind in the military. It will be an important part of reinvesting in our military and ensuring our technological superiority.

What does this mean for Robins? It means the Robins first-in-class facilities and workforce will continue to play a major role in America’s national defense. It means Robins will continue to build on its legacy of service for years to come.

As a member of the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee, it is my responsibility to make sure the Air Force can effectively do its part to protect our nation. In that regard, this move with the Advanced Battle Management System is a strong step forward. This is truly exciting, and I could not be prouder that this is happening in my hometown.

Yesterday, Democrats in the U.S. Senate showed their true colors. First, they forced a government shutdown over DACA. Yesterday, they got an opportunity to vote to give certainty to 1.8 million DACA recipients. They voted no.

Democrats said they wanted to have a bipartisan solution. They really don’t. Democrats said they wanted to secure the border. They really don’t. Instead, they crushed the dreams of people who were counting on them to deliver and showed they are happy to continue having an immigration system that has failed our national security and the American people.

A Year Of Accomplishments For The Trump AgendaBy Sen. David Perdue (R-GA)

When President Donald J. Trump was elected, he outlined his top goals: confirming a conservative justice to the Supreme Court, rolling back onerous regulations, fixing our health-care system, and changing our archaic tax code. We have begun to do that, and we are already seeing the economy start to move. Trump’s agenda is starting to work and this has been a year of significant accomplishments.

So far, nearly 2 million new jobs have been created. Eight-hundred sixty rules and regulations have been eliminated. Five-hundred bureaucrats have been fired at the VA for poor performance. Illegal border crossings are down by 60 percent.

Consumer confidence is at a 17 year high. CEO confidence is at a 20 year high. We have had two straight quarters of 3 percent GDP growth. More NATO countries are beginning to invest in defense. For the first time in eight years, we have reinvested in our military.

In addition to Justice Neil Gorsuch being confirmed to the United States Supreme Court, 145 federal judges will be confirmed, including 12 circuit judges, compared to only three in former President Obama’s first year.

Look, I come from the business world where results matter. These results are fantastic for any president’s first year. President Trump is an outsider and business guy who is listening to the American people. He is continuing to move at a business pace, not a bureaucratic pace, and as a result our economy is on the cusp of a turnaround.

Earlier this month, we made history by changing our archaic tax code for the first time in 31 years. These changes are critical to our long-term economic future. While this tax plan is not perfect, it will help Georgians and create a level playing field so we can compete with the rest of the world.

For example, a family of four earning the median income of $73,000 will see their tax bill reduced by 60 percent. A single mom earning $41,000 is going to pay 75 percent less. The standard deduction is doubled. The child care credit is also doubled. In fact, up to 6 million Americans will be removed from the federal income tax rolls altogether.

The biggest impact will come from a dramatically lower corporate rate that will allow American businesses to compete globally. Ending the repatriation tax will free up more than $2.6 trillion in American profits locked overseas to be reinvested into our economy.

Overall, it is estimated that these tax changes will create nearly 1 million new jobs and increase wages anywhere from $4,000-9,000. Ultimately, these efforts will generate much-needed economic growth that is a crucial part of solving our national debt crisis, which is still my No. 1 objective in the United States Senate.

This year, we made some real progress. We are finally starting to get back to our founding principles of economic opportunity, fiscal responsibility, limited government, and individual liberty. However, the hard work is just getting started.

In 2018, we must keep up the momentum. We have to continue going after onerous rules and regulations. We started by rolling back the EPA’s Waters of the U.S. rule, stopping the Clean Power Plan, and undoing some of the damage done by Dodd-Frank.

We have to continue working to fix our health-care system. Here in Georgia, 91 percent of counties only have one choice in provider and 300,000 Georgians still cannot get insurance. We were able to eliminate the individual mandate, which fined 8 million Americans $2 billion in 2014. We still have to save Social Security and Medicare for future generations, and get at the drivers of spiraling health-care costs.

We also have to fix our broken immigration system. I have been working on The RAISE Act, which would stop chain migration, end the outdated green card visa lottery, and move us to a merit-based immigration system.

Ultimately, we must scrap Washington’s failed budget process and put in place a politically neutral platform that works to fund the federal government on time, support our military, and pay for important infrastructure investments.

It is hard to believe that just one year ago, we were getting ready for President Trump’s inauguration. It is even harder to believe that I am halfway through my first term in the United States Senate.

Georgians sent me to the United States Senate for the same reason they sent President Trump to the White House: to get results. I am proud of what we have accomplished in 2017, and in 2018 I am committed to doing all I can to continue changing the direction of our country.

Stop Gambling With National Security & End The Visa LotteryBy Sen. David Perdue
NBC News Think

This visa lottery is tainted by fraud and abuse, and has been identified as a national security risk for years. The suspect in October’s terrorist attack in New York City used the federal government-run green card lottery to enter the United States, showing again that there is no doubt that it should be eliminated.

Since the lottery was enacted in 1990, the federal government has naively doled out approximately 50,000 green-cards annually at random to foreign nationals from countries with lower levels of overall immigration to the United States. The lottery by design makes few, if any, allowances for an individual’s country of origin, even if the country is identified by the State Department as a sponsor of terrorism. It also has no criteria for previous ties to the United States.

This recent terrorist attack is not the first time the issues with the visa lottery have been called into question; reports of fraud and security risks go back years. In 2003, a State Department Inspector General said “identity fraud is endemic, and fraudulent documents are commonplace.” That year alone, 364,000 lottery applications were duplicates. The Government Accountability Office also sounded the alarm in 2007, noting the “widespread use of fake documents… presented challenges when verifying the identities of applicants and dependents.” Still the lottery remained intact.

Another Inspector General report in 2013 indicated that organized fraud rings masquerading as travel agencies had taken control of applications for the program in Ukraine, entering as much as 80 percent of the population of western Ukraine in the lottery and then extorting those who won both before and after they immigrated. The report recommended “urgent attention and corrective action from Washington.”

It is hardly an understatement to say that fraud has become a feature of this lottery, not an anomaly. That is, unequivocally, a national security risk.

The State Department says that, over the last decade, nearly 29,000 visas were given to citizens from the three countries — Iran, Syria and Sudan — that the agency then listed as state sponsors of terrorism. Iran alone was the third largest recipient of lottery visas in 2016.

These numbers are particularly concerning since the State Department has warned that the lottery “contains significant threats to national security as hostile intelligence officers, criminals, and terrorists attempt to use it to enter the United States as permanent residents.” Beyond the New York terrorist, at least five foreign nationals with suspected ties to terrorism have entered the country via the lottery or the program which preceded its passage.

Fortunately, there has been bipartisan support in Congress to end the green-card lottery. The Jordan Commission, headed by Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Jordan and supported by former President Bill Clinton, proposed scrapping the lottery in 1995. Eighteen years later, every single Democrat in the U.S. Senate — including Chuck Schumer, its original architect — voted to end the lottery as part of a broader immigration reform package.

The Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy (RAISE) Act that Senator Tom Cotton and I have introduced would eliminate the green-card lottery and move us to a merit-based immigration system. This model is heavily based on the immigration systems in Australia and Canada, which have welcomed the best and brightest from around the world for decades.

America is one of the most welcoming countries in the world for immigrants. We simply want an immigration system that keeps Americans safe. The green-card lottery is a failure on all fronts.

It is time to eliminate this outdated program, and implement an immigration system that helps grow our economy while protecting our country.

Our domestic plants are aging rapidly. Five have closed in recent years. At the start of this year, four new reactors were under construction at two plants: two in South Carolina and two in Georgia. The South Carolina project has since come to a halt because of mounting delays and regulatory hurdles.

To realize our full energy potential, we need a renewed commitment to domestic nuclear energy. It’s a win for our economy because it will create jobs and capital. On top of that, it’s an emission-free energy source that has bipartisan support. Most importantly, it’s a matter of national security. While America has faltered in its commitment to nuclear, Russia and China have been on the move.

Two years ago, Reuters reported that Rosatom – a state-owned Russian nuclear energy export agency – had 29 reactors under construction around the globe. Russia collected billions in nuclear export revenues in 2015, and last year it exported $133 billion worth of nuclear goods and services.

China’s rise is equally, if not more, concerning.

This year alone, China has announced nuclear deals with multiple African nations. Chinese firms are building reactors in Pakistan and Great Britain. China is currently building 20 reactors at an average of one new reactor every five months. That’s why U.S. Energy Information Administration has predicted China will surpass America as the world’s largest nuclear energy producer in just 15 years.

Experts and leaders on both sides of the aisle agree we cannot allow that to happen.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge recently wrote, “When other nations buy Russian and Chinese nuclear exports – as they increasingly do – Moscow and Beijing, not Washington, set the standards.”

The Center for Strategic and International Studies has said, “Without a strong commercial presence in new nuclear markets, America’s ability to influence nonproliferation policies and nuclear safety behaviors worldwide is bound to diminish.”

Former Obama Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz published a study this year calling nuclear a “key national security enabler.”

Finally, President Donald J. Trump said in June that, “we will begin to revive and expand our nuclear energy sector.” President Trump also ordered a full review of our domestic nuclear energy policies, and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry recently announced a conditional loan guarantee of up to $3.7 billion for the completion of Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

We’ve got to turn this bipartisan consensus into meaningful action so that the United States can continue to be the world’s leader in nuclear energy.

The average age of our domestic plants today is 37 years. We need to bring our nuclear capabilities into the 21st Century, by bringing these two outstanding nuclear plants in Georgia online and then building other nuclear power plants.

We need to get the regulators who have caused years of delays out of the way.

We need to send a signal to the rest of the world that nuclear energy is going to continue to be a major part of our domestic energy production.

We cannot expect or trust geopolitical rivals to use their nuclear leverage in a stabilizing way. With Russia and China’s nuclear influence on the rise – not to mention the illicit activities of rogue nations like Iran and North Korea – it’s critical that we do more to invest in our own nuclear energy capabilities now.